Benjamin Kirby Tennyson
Benjamin "Ben" Kirby Tennyson was a normal ten-year-old kid until he found the Omnitrix, a powerful watch-like device that allowed him to turn into ten different aliens. Though initially immature and clumsy, he grew to be a true hero. By the time he was sixteen, he had become famous in not only his hometown of Bellwood, but on Earth and beyond. Ben has also been deputized by the Plumbers and gained more aliens as time progressed. In Mystery, Incorporeal, Ben obtains an honorary college degree from Friedkin University. Appearance Ben's physical appearance has changed throughout the series from a ten-year-old to a sixteen-year-old. However, he retains some recurring characteristics. He has shaggy brown hair, green eyes, pale skin, and he's quite skinny for his age, though he shows a lot of muscle definition due to being athletic. When he was 5, as revealed in a flashback of how he first met his future frenemy Mr.Baumann, Ben wore green overalls with a white shirt underneath it. White numbers saying "5 1/2" where on a black square in front of his overalls. In the original series and Omniverse flashbacks, Ben's usual clothes consists of a black-striped, white shirt with short sleeves, green pants and black and white shoes with black stripes. Ben wears the prototype Omnitrix on his left wrist. In Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Ben wears a black shirt, blue pants and a green jacket with white stripes and the number 10 on it, and black shoes. Ben wears the prototype Omnitrix in Alien Force and the Ultimatrix in Ultimate Alien on his left wrist. In Omniverse and Hero Alliance, Ben wears a shirt which is black and has a green stripe in the middle with a white 10 and green stripes on the sides of his shirt. He wears brown pants with pockets at the knees and green and white shoes. He later gains a white hooded jacket with green stripes on both arms and a green number 10 on the right side. He wears the Omnitrix on his left wrist in Omniverse and the Omnitrix MK III in Hero Alliance. Powers and Abilities Ben has been trained in hand-to-hand combat by black belt Gwen (as shown in Be-Knighted), Max, as well as various years fighting aliens, and received a basic Plumber training. Though he has only been trained on a weekly basis in order to minimize his reliance on the Omnitrixes/Ultimatrix, he is still proved to be quite exceptionally skilled in basic hand-to-hand combat as well armed and unarmed combat, being able to easily dodge shots from Manny's blasters and proceed to disarm him while in human form in Above and Beyond. Ben was able to hold his own against Pierce, and Max hinted that Ben was a highly skilled fighter, even as a human in Voided, expressing surprise about the fact he lost to Pierce (though it is then revealed that Ben had lost on purpose). Another hint of his exceptional hand-to-hand skill is when he succeeded in the Plumbers' Academy with a 95 out of a 100 (without using the Ultimatrix). He is also shown to be a crafty fighter. However, according to Matt Wayne, Ben isn't a trained fighter and that he uses freestyle fighting. It's evident that Ben is extremely smart in some respects, possessing an above average intelligence. It was even stated by Gwen that he really isn't working up to his potential at school, and he replies, "That's what they tell me." He also has fairly moderate grades (although not at Gwen or Julie's level). Chemistry is his toughest subject, yet he still maintains a B+ average. In Where the Magic Happens, it is shown that Ben has a good memory, as he was perfectly capable of remembering and writing down the mystic rune-like symbols for entering the inter-dimensional realm of Ledgerdomain with just one glance from a distance. He was able to write the runes down. In Perplexahedron, Ben is also shown to possess advanced intuition, as he was able to understand how Perplexahedron really worked with a small problem at first, but was then able to learn from the mistake and figure it out easily. Ben is also a cross dominant, skillfully wielding tools and weapons in either hand, in human or alien form. Ben was able to dodge Attea's punches with relative ease in Vilgax Must Croak. Equipment Ben is the wielder of the Omnitrix (formerly the Ultimatrix and first Omnitrix), which gave him the power to modify his own genetic code in order to turn into various alien creatures, literally making him an alien shape-shifter. Traditionally, he could only transform into ten aliens at the beginning of both the original series and Alien Force, but he later gains additional forms by either unlocking them or by scanning the DNA of aliens he meets. At the end of the original series, his arsenal included twenty aliens, while his current complete list is 62 aliens discovered (Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, 71 if Ultimate forms are included). When transforming into an alien, Ben gets all the creature's features, including its appearance, voice, all of its unique and special abilities and powers, strengths and weaknesses. Though he mostly retains his personality, there are some cases where the transformation causes change in it, such as Rath being far more aggressive, Spidermonkey acting more childish, Big Chill being affected by his reproduction instincts, Brainstorm being far more polite, or Jury Rigg having the desire to destroy/fix machines and Swampfire's maturity that caused Ben to have zits on his face. Three of the aliens, Ghostfreak, Big Chill and Ultimate Humungousaur, even managed to actually take over Ben's personality. Though he usually uses his alien forms to fight, there have been some occasions where he was taken for a real alien by others, humans especially (until his secret was revealed to the world). At one point, he intentionally impersonated Bivalvan as Water Hazard to convince P'andor to go home, and though he was unsuccessful at convincing him, P'andor believed him to be Bivalvan. In addition to transforming into aliens, the Ultimatrix included what is referred as an "evolutionary function," that allowed Ben to evolve his alien forms in order to get upgraded versions of them, referred to as Ultimate Forms. It's explained that the function works by placing the selected alien form in a simulated worst-case scenario for a millennial or so, then simply modifying the old DNA to match the new DNA. In addition to the primary transformations and evolutionary function, the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix can both be used for various purposes. Both have a built in Universal Translator that allows Ben to communicate with most aliens that don't speak English. During the Highbreed invasion, the prototype Omnitrix displayed the ability to manipulate and repair genetic damage, a function he used to cure DNAliens and save the Highbreed from extinction. According to Eunice in Simian Says, Ben couldn't do this with the Ultimatrix. Azmuth also mentioned that Ben could use the prototype Omnitrix to bring back to life any species stored on Primus. The Omnitrix also has a failsafe to help prevent Ben from dying. If Ben is in mortal danger and the Omnitrix is in recharge mode, it will automatically go into active mode. As of Bringing the Team Together, Ben has since replaced the Omnitrix with the Omnitrix MK III. The Omnitrix MK III has all the functions of the previous Omnitrix, and several new ones as well. The Omnitrix MK III can teleport Ben for fast travel, but it takes time to warm up. It also has the ability to link up with other machines in order to manipulate them. The Omnitrix MK III talks in a soft female voice when it is necessary to verbally communicate information. It is able to display a short range 3D map of the current area or a 2D map with a range as far as a large country. Sometime between Omniverse and Hero Alliance, Ben has unlocked around 100 alien forms. Weaknesses Ben's main ability with the Omnitrix is also his main weakness. Whenever the device times out, Ben is left powerless until he either dodges or switches to a new alien form. Furthermore, in addition to gaining the selected alien's powers, he gains its weaknesses. He is also vulnerable to the alien's natural predator. Additionally, at times the natural biological behavior of certain aliens can override Ben's behavior, such as Big Chill's reproductive phase or Swampfire's "blossoming" process. Whenever Ben unlocks a new alien form, he is at a disadvantage of not knowing its abilities and weaknesses until he gains experience with using the new alien. Despite his experience in using the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix, Ben still does not know every function of them. Due to his inquisitive nature and impatience, he has accidentally unlocked new functions such as the Master Control and the randomizer, which can at times do more harm than good (such as in the The Frogs of War: Part 1). Though the current Omnitrix is designed to work only for him, Ben still has not mastered it. According to Azmuth, Ben may get the Master Control on his 18th birthday. In For a Few Brains More, it is revealed that the Omnitrix does not mistransform, but rather it is due to Ben hitting the Omnitrix too hard, thereby causing the time-out function to select another alien at random. Apparently this did not happen as much with the original Omnitrix when Ben was younger, as he didn't have as much strength back then. Ben has an allergy to peanuts and has a fear of peacocks (Ostriches in the Arabic dub). He also has coulrophobia (fear of clowns). Ben's left eye twitches whenever he tells a lie, but only Kevin appears to notice this. Ben appears to have a short attention span at times, and more often than not it can get him into trouble. Rook has additionally pointed out that Ben tends to rely too much on his alien forms for combat. Though he has matured substantially since receiving the original Omnitrix, he is still a teenager with much to learn and is prone to irrational impulses and recklessness. Appearances * Alpha (first appearance) * Bringing the Team Together Etymology Benjamin is a name going back into the Tanakh (called the Hebrew Bible by Christian scholars), a name of one of the sons of Jacob. His name, "Ben," is to create a rhyming effect between his first name and the number Ten. His middle name, Kirby, was named as reference to comic book artist Jack Kirby, according to Derrick J. Wyatt. His last name, Tennyson, meaning the Son of Tenny. The "Ten'''ny" part is a reference to the series name, "Ben '''Ten". Trivia * According to Azmuth and Professor Paradox, Ben will have a glorious future. * According to Natalie Tennyson, Ben does not have good table manners. * According to Gwen, when Ben was 10, he was sleeping with his teddy bear, called "Furry Freddy." However, Ben defended himself saying that Furry Freddy has his own bed, which happens to be right next to Ben's. * According to Rook, Ben's history is now required reading at the Plumbers' Academy. It comprises approximately a "chapter and a half." * According to himself in Under Wraps, Ben's favorite ice cream is made by Digby Dairy. * Ben and Gwen share the same birthday. ** According to Rook in The Ultimate Heist, Gwen's birthday is in December, which would put Ben's in December too. Also, in the episode Camp Fear, Ben complains that Gwen had planned her birthday six months in advance, putting it somewhere in early December. * Ben used to shout the names of his aliens to strike fear into his opponents. In Omniverse, Ben does this sparingly, like he did when he transformed into Humungousaur after many attempts. He began to shout at the names again constantly in Hero Alliance. * Ben owns both a driver's license and a car (the car being a reluctant birthday present from Kevin). * Ben's worst subject is Physics. * It was revealed in Eye of the Beholder that Ben has a Plumber's Badge despite the fact that the prototype Omnitrix served as a Plumbers' Badge. However, the Ultimatrix (which Ben had at the time) couldn't be used as a Plumber's Badge as well as the Prototype Omnitrix. * Ben passed the 3rd grade by choosing C for all the answers on multiple choice tests. * Ben said he dislikes smoothies when he was young. It seems between that time and now, he gained a great liking for smoothies after that time. * In Showdown: Part 1, Ben confirms that his favorite color is green, favorite food is Chili Fries, favorite hobby is collecting Sumo Slammers, his worst fear is peacocks, and his first crush was Patty Berkinfield from 3rd grade, as well as the fact he has a scar on his body in the shape of New Jersey. * Ben has a habit of referring to other members of his Omnitrix aliens' species by the names he gives his aliens. * In Something Zombozo This Way Comes, it is revealed that Ben has relapsed into his fear of clowns (triggered by seeing Grandpa Max become one, bringing a memory from when Max dressed like a clown when Ben was 5). * In Mystery, Incorporeal, Ben was awarded an honorary doctorate from Friedkin University as a reward for saving the school from Darkstar. It is currently unknown what field the doctorate is in. * Since using Grey Matter in Rad, Ben developed the ability to understand Pyxi as seen in The Vampire Strikes Back. * According to Azmuth and Sir George, Ben is the same as they were when they were young. * In Rook Tales, it is revealed that Ben's great-grandfather was also named Ben Tennyson. Category:Heroes Category:Ben 10